EVERGLADENEWSLETTER OF THE KITE AUDUBON SOCIETY OF THE EVERGLADES Serving Palm Beach County, Florida Volume 52, Number 5 February 2012 CALENDAR Program for Tuesday, February 7, 2012 Sat. Feb 4, 4:30 p.m. Wakodahatchee Everglades Restoration: A Progress Report in Times of Economic Uncertainty Wetlands, 13026 Jog Road, Delray Dr. Nicholas G. Aumen, Everglades Restoration Team Beach. EVENING FLY IN. Meet at top of Join us as Nick provides an update about current events in Everglades restoration, boardwalk. Leader: Dorothy Brindle. including the new Central Everglades Planning Project and the impact of recent Sat. Feb 4 & 5 Viera Wetlands/Merritt budget cuts across all agencies. Island. Contact Valleri Brauer 561-969- 0908 to register. Nick Aumen is an aquatic ecologist for Everglades National Park (US Department of the Interior, National Park Service), and oversees an interagency team of scientists Sat. Feb 4 STA 1E (tour filled) and engineers tracking the progress of the south Florida ecosystem restoration Tues. Feb 7, 4:30, p.m. BEGINNING BIRD program. His team, located at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, assesses WALK. Peaceful Waters, Wellington. the potential impacts of restoration programs on Everglades National Park and SE corner of Village Park Road, 11700 Pierson Road. Meet at beginning of other sensitive federal lands. boardwalk. Leader: Paton White Formerly, Nick was the Research Director at the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach, directing a team of 120-plus scientists and engineers Wed. Feb 8, 7:30 a.m. ARM Loxahatchee NWR. Meet at Marsh Trail. Entry $5 per car conducting research in support of ecosystem restoration. Nick received his B.S. and M.S. in biology at the University of West Florida, and his Ph.D. in microbial Sat. Feb 11, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Everglades Day, ARM Loxahatchee NWR. Free! ecology at Oregon State University. After finishing his Ph.D., he took a faculty position in biology at the University of Mississippi, and was a tenured Associate Sun. Feb 12, 10:00 a.m. Green Cay Wetlands, Professor of Biology until 1991, when he returned to Florida. 12800 Hagen Ranch Rd, Boynton Bch. CHILDREN’S BEGINNING BIRDWALK Nick is presently an Adjunct Professor of Biology at Florida Atlantic University (8 and above). Meet outside Nature Center in Boca Raton. Nick serves on the Executive Committeee of the Interamerican Main Door. Leader: Linda Humphries Water Resources Network and is a past officer on the national board of Sierra Club. Fri. Feb 17, 8:30 a.m. Green Cay, STA 1E BACKYARD BIRD COUNT. Meet as Linda Humphries above. Leader: Linda Humphries I am pleased to inform you that Audubon Society of the Everglades (ASE) and South Sat. Feb 18, 3:30 p.m. Wakodahatchee, BACKYARD BIRD COUNT. Meet as Florida Water Management have entered into an agreement to lead guided auto tours above. Leader: Valleri Brauer in Stormwater Treatment Area 1 East (on Flying Cow Rd near Southern Blvd). The first trip was January 7 and was a success. Over ten species of ducks, the usual wading Sun. Feb 19, 8:00 a.m. Wellington birds, eight raptors, and many other birds were seen by our group. (See our website Environmental Preserve CANCELLED for a complete list of the birds seen.) ASE will be leading birding tours throughout Sun. Feb 19, STA 1E Photography Tour (filled) the year on the first Saturday of each month. A second tour for photographers is Mon. Feb 20, 3:30 p.m. Peaceful Waters, scheduled thru April. Many articles were put in the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel BACKYARD BIRD COUNT. Meet as informing the public of this new adventure. On Saturday, January 15, a wonderful above. Leader: Paton White article appeared that has left me stunned and almost speechless (talking too much). Sat. Feb 25, 8:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. BIRDING The public showed and told me how much they enjoy birds and appreciate a new WORKSHOP (lectures: birds, photos, birding tour. Some of the people had been on the old tour over four years ago and walks) Contact Paton White to register 561- were thrilled STA 1E tours were finally being offered again. By 10:30 am Saturday 818-7574. See website for more details. morning the February 4 tour was full. As of January 14 2012 all the tour dates Sun, Feb 26, 8:00 a.m. DuPuis through the end of April are filled. Management Area, State Road 76 (3 miles east of Port Mayaca). Meet at We will be offering tours from May thru December, the first Saturday of each month. entrance Gate 1. Leader: Chuck Weber There are usually not as many birds around during the summer months. We have no Wed. Feb 29, 8:00 a.m. Peaceful Waters, idea what we will find. In addition, on November 18 and December 16 there will be BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY 101. Meet as a photography trip. above. Leader: Don Mullaney The tours are limited to 40 people. Reservations are required. Call Linda 561- Thur. Mar 8. Barley Barber Swamp EVENING 742-7791 or email [email protected]. Thanks to you, the public, for your terrific TOUR. Preregistration req’d; call Linda 561- response and thank you to South Florida Water Management for allowing the guided 742-7791 to reserve. Space limited. tours. The tours are free and open to the public. Come join the fun! President’s Column The Everglade Kite Linda Humphries is the newsletter of the Audubon You hear the expression “I was at the right place at the right time”. I guess I really didn’t Society of the Everglades, published understand it until the Christmas Bird Count, December 31, 2011, when Paton White 10 times a year. and I were in the “right place at the right time”. We started the count at the Harvey J. President Oyer Jr. Boat Club Park (Boynton Boat Ramp, on Federal Hwy near Gateway) looking Linda Humphries 561-742-7791 for birds. We walked out on the fishing docks and saw a sandbar full of birds. I ran to get my scope while Paton starting scanning the birds. We had a Loon and Red-breasted 1st Vice President Mergansers in the water. The sandbar had one Greater Black-Backed Gull, Herring Gull, Cynthia Plockelman 585-1278 Semipalmated Plovers, large amounts of laughing and ring-billed gulls and Royal Terns. In 2nd Vice President the area around the fishing docks we were able to find Yellow-crowned night-herons and Paton White 818-7574 all the usual wading birds, including a spotted sandpiper. The next day we went back and Secretary the sandbar appeared about an hour later. It had Black bellied Plovers, the Greater-Black Alan Parmalee 498-0996 Backed Gull, a Least Sandpiper, Sanderlings, and the usual gulls and terns. The numbers Treasurer were not as impressive as the day before, but I was thrilled to see the shorebirds. I wrote Janet Schreiber 689-2530 in last month’s newsletter about the efforts that have been put into cleaning up the Lake Field Trips Worth Lagoon. This is proof that the cleanup is working. Oystercatchers were once again Valleri Brauer 969-0908 spotted near the Lake Worth Golf Course. There is a boardwalk being constructed in Lake Worth lagoon near the Lake Worth Golf Course that will be completed by spring. It will be Bird ID a great spot to see water birds, especially the Oystercatchers. On a sad note the day of the Clive Pinnock 233-1400 x4 Christmas bird count no one reported seeing a Florida Snail Kite in the count circle. This Library is further proof that the destruction of wetland habitat and the continued construction in Anne Hoctor 601-8007 Palm Beach County is taking a toll on Florida’s Snail Kites. I have heard predictions that Conservation in the not too distant future you will not be able to find the Florida Snail Kites in the West Rosa (Cissie) Durando 965-2420 Palm Beach area; let’s hope this is not true. We have already lost most of the Scrub jays in Education Palm Beach County; please help protect the Snail Kite habitat from disappearing. Come Susan Snyder 627-7829 on out and join our bird walks. You never know what you will find! Christmas Bird Count Birding in Panama – March 7–13, 2012 Chuck Weber, Compiler Panama has the reputation of the best rainforest I’ll be going through the teams lists for awhile to come, but can safely declare this year’s birding in the world (according to Kenn Kaufman and Ron Magill) so we have planned a seven day, West Palm Beach Christmas Bird Count a success. Saturday, December 31, more than 60 six night adventure:three days in the rainforest participants on 16 teams fanned out through our count circle, recording a preliminary and three days in the highlands with deluxe total of 146 species. That’s about 5 more than last year, and the most in several years. accommodations. We had two firsts this year: Piping Plover (3) and Cave Swallow (2). Both species had Day 1 Depart Miami airport – arrive in been seen during previous count weeks, but never on the actual count day. Andrew Knafel Panama City and transfer to Gamboa found the Plovers prior to the count, and they were relocated Saturday on the beach more Rainforest Resort half way up the Panama Canal than a mile north of Lake Worth Beach. Andrew and Brian Hope had the Cave Swallows Day 2 Boat ride and birding in the Panama at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.